I worked very hard day. I had so much things I had to do both fun and for work that I couldn't do any of them. I spent the day instead looking for creative ways to not work. I went for a run. I went for a walk. Swimming in the Winooski which was at least 40°. I even cut the grass, one of the things I hate most in life. In the end, I am glad to say that I completely avoided doing anything useful …now that's saying something.

I did do some Random acts of making: I wrote a bunch more code for Max's Redbull project, I updated the flooris exhibit to put it a couple of new Effects ( a digital clock !)'and I worked on a very late but very fun musical instrument that I'm doing for friend.

I didn't take a break from taking a break this evening to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. We went to Jen and Tims and had burgers and margaritas. I skipped the burgers.

Afterwards all of us went boating on Gilette pond. We were quite a flotilla. It was a beautiful and still evening. Blackflies were out, but not yet biting. We saw several beaver and heard tons of birds. It's definitely sproing day, the day when all of the greenery is fully engaged. It was beautiful.

I Was working to almost 4am with max last night… Looking forward to sleeping now. More after that.
Night all, night sam
– Me

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It was a beautiful, glorious, once a year perfect weather day… And I spent it on the couch programming.

I hadn't planned to do it. It wasn't something I had signed up to do. It had nothing to do with work. But, my son Max called me this morning with an urgent plea for help in a crazy project that is due tomorrow. It's for one of the Red Bull hacking contests. Max had applied to be one of the 200 contestants at the very last moment and none of us expected to make the deadline.

But we did. On Thursday max got the supplies kit. the finished results are due tomorrow. What could I do ? What would anyone do if their son was in need of help… Programming or otherwise. The project details are a little fuzzy to me… I know my friend Collin was down helping Max yesterday but I'm not exactly sure what we're doing. I do know it involves a 10 will 40-year-old diesel Army truck that is going to have an animated happy face on. I'm working on a happy face code. That makes me happy.

It's actually a real pleasure to be able to work with Max on stuff like this. And despite missing the beautiful weather I really had a good time today.

I say had… Because I think I hear an all nighter coming on. I'll let you know tomorrow. For now I'm going to try to catch a nap so that when Max comes back from dinner we can start again after all it's only 11 PM.
Night all, night sam
– Me

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2 days ago scientists at IBM published a really short movie called a boy and his atom..

Not only was it short.. But it was small all around. It was made entirely of a hundered or so carbon monoxide molecules on a piece of highly polished copper at 4 degrees aove absolute zero, The animators made the movie by manually moving the individual atoms around using the tiny tip of an atomic force microscope. The device not only moves atoms.. But it lets you 'see' them by magunifying them 100,000,000 times.

, i know this partially because i watched the making of movie .. And partially because almost 2 years ago i used that exact same machine to make the worlds smallest samstone. My friend don e. was kind enough to work with me for neary 4 hours as we manually dragged the carbon monoxide molecules aroudn to spell out sams name..

it was a slow, medititative process,., requiring lots of patience and love. in the end, i had made the worlds smallest samstone,. perhaps the worlds smallest memorial of any sort… I just lear ned that ibm has submitted thenn boy and his atom movie to guiness and hadmit certified as the worlds smallest movie.. I thought about doing the same thign with my samstone.. But then thought somehow that wouldn't be appropriate,,

You can read about my experience here.

I am very proud of my Colleagues, for making this movie. Not just because of the technical feat involved… Because of how it humanizes science and nature. my very tiny hat is off to all of you.

More tomorrow
Night all, night Sam
– me

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I was tempted to satrtt by saying 'busy day' but will refrain. My buddy Ville sent me this nice article on the cult of being ever busy.. Good food for thought.. ( but it was a busy day, anyway). Sarted with an early morning electricity show for a bunch of physcis kids at burlington high school.. Then a very full day at work.

The big news for the day is thatni finally got my ids back.. Ive been without a badge at work for several weeks. One of the nice things about being funny looking as that folks remember me… So i usually have no trouble 'faking' my way into the buildings at work. The only trouble is grtting in at night and early mornings. I finally knuckled in and got a new badge made. I was a little bummed becase my old badge had me wearing a Sam pin.. I didnt have one with me today.l so i was a little sad not to have that it on a new picture.. I was so happy to learn that they still had it on file… So here it is..

I also dropped by UVM and finally got my id there after years of being part time faculty.

It feels nice to be official again …

I came home to find that my frind Victor had dropped off some 3d printed samstones . He used the design i had put out here.

Guess thats it for the day.. More tomorrow

Nite all, nite sam

-me

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